ATLAS Formbuilder - Timed Routing Actions

This tutorial explains how to u design a form to change phases and/or trigger routing actions automatically after a period of time has passed or when a form has been matched specific criteria for a given period of time.

For a video tutorial, check out:

 

For a variety of reasons, a form administrator may want a routing trigger's actions to occur at a specific time or after a certain amount of time has elapsed. This kind of action, officially known as a timed routing action, can be useful in many scenarios, such as:

  • Moving a form response to an archival phase after it has remained in a data collection or review phase for a certain amount of time.
  • Moving a form response to an archival phase if it has not been reviewed by a specific date.
  • Sending an email to the form response's current responsible party, reminding them to complete their review/data entry if the response has sat in a phase for a certain amount of time.
Routing triggers that utilize timed routing actions are often referred to as "time bombs." 


In order to set up a routing trigger as a time bomb, first navigate to the desired routing trigger's settings page, or create a new routing trigger. For more information on how to accomplish this, visit ATLAS FormBuilder - Adding and Editing Routing Triggers. 

Once on your trigger's settings page, locate the Trigger Properties section at the top of the page. The Trigger evalulation time field in this section controls when the routing trigger's conditions are checked, and contains a dropdown menu of options, some of which can be used to configure timed routing actions.

The "Trigger Properties" section of a routing trigger's edit page, with an arrow pointing to the highlighted "Trigger evaluation time" field.

The options that can be used for timed routing actions are as follows:

  • After the form response has matched the Trigger Condition for a given length of time:

    Allows the designation of a span of time by inputting a number and a choice of time unit -- from minutes, hours, days, or weeks. With this setting active, the trigger's routing actions will be set off after the trigger conditions are met continuously for the designated span of time. If the conditions are broken before the length of time has elapsed, the trigger's "timer" will stop, resetting to the beginning and re-starting itself once the conditions are met again.

    The selected "After the form response has matched the Trigger Condition for a given length of time" trigger evaluation time.

  • At a specific date/time

    Allows the choice of a specific date on which the trigger's routing actions should occur, OR how much time (minutes, hours, days, or weeks) before or after a specific date that the trigger's routing actions should occur -- if the trigger conditions are met.

    The selected "At a specific date and time" trigger evaluation time, with its fields displayed, and the dropdown menu for selecting relativity to the selected date unrolled.

    The chosen date may either be explicitly specified, or selected from any of the form's available date-based fields.

    The selected "At a specific date and time" trigger evaluation time option, with the dropdown menu for selecting the date in question unrolled.

After you have set up your "time bomb" routing trigger to your liking, make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click the green Save button to save your changes.

The "save" button on the editing page for a routing trigger, highlighted and with an arrow pointing to it.

For more tutorials on ATLAS FormBuilder, visit FormBuilder - Homepage.


Keywords:
atlas, support, formbuilder, phase, change, time, period, administrator, override, form, match 
Doc ID:
82380
Owned by:
Beckett A. in University of Illinois LAS
Created:
2018-05-21
Updated:
2024-10-22
Sites:
University of Illinois Liberal Arts and Sciences